The present invention relates to broadcast signal channel selecting apparatus and, more particularly, to apparatus for selecting a broadcast signal in accordance with a priority of each of the broadcast signals determined by previous selections of the broadcast signals.
As is known, television receivers receive broadcast signals via antenna or cable that have been transmitted by a broadcast station and employ a channel selecting device to select one of the received signals for viewing by a user. The channel selecting device includes a tuner which is "tuned" to one of the carrier frequencies received by the television receiver, discriminates that carrier frequency from the other carrier frequencies, and supplies the broadcast signal contained within that carrier frequency to the television monitor for viewing. A tuner controller is operative to control the tuner by supplying control signals which indicate which broadcast signal is to be selected by the tuner.
One known tuner controller is of the type which has a number of push-buttons which are depressed by a television viewer to select the broadcast signal to be displayed on the television monitor. One such push-button is depressed to "step-up" the channel selection, supplying a pulse train to the tuner causing the tuner to tune to the next higher carrier frequency from the carrier frequency to which it currently is tuned. That is, the up-channel push-button is depressed to increase the channel number by one. Similarly, a down-channel push-button is depressed to "step-down" the selection of the tuner by tuning to the next lower carrier frequency from the carrier frequency to which the tuner currently is tuned. An advantage to having two push-buttons, one to initiate "step-up" the other to initiate "step-down" is that any received carrier frequency (i.e. channel) may be selected by Using only these two push-buttons.
One disadvantage with a television receiver employing the above-described push-buttons is that a user must often "cycle" through channels which are not desired to be viewed before selecting the ultimate channel when changing channels by means of one of these two push-buttons. Since it is common for a viewer to watch the same television program at a specific time and day, thereby selecting the same channel (e.g. channel 4) at the same time and day of each week (e.g. 8:00 p.m. on Sunday), and it is common for that viewer to watch another television program on a second channel (e.g. channel 9) immediately after viewing the first program (e.g. 9:00 p.m. on Sunday), the viewer is forced to cycle through undesired channels (e.g. channels 5, 6, 7 and 8) when using one of the two above-described push-buttons when selecting the second channel.
Another disadvantage with the television receiver employing the above-described two push-buttons for step-up and step-down, is that the television receiver and the channel selecting device do not assist the viewer in selecting the most commonly viewed channels at a specified time of day of the week and thus, the viewer may need to refer to a television program time schedule, commonly known as a television guide, to determine which channel is to be viewed.